Occultation of an occultation

[lukebl]

Did anyone notice this yesterday.

I was preparing my equipment for a 5 second occultation of a 12th magnitude star by asteroid (583) Klotilde at the civilised hour of 21:55. OccultWatcher predicted that I was on the centreline and I was hoping for my first successful occultation measurement in nearly a year. I knew that it was going to be close to the moon which I accepted might be an issue in terms of glare. But at least the sky was clear.

What I hadn't noticed that the event itself would actually be occulted by the moon at the precise moment!  A strange coincidence.

This is a screen grab from Carte du Ciel at the time of the occultation.

Edited March 3, 2020 by lukebl

[Phil Fargaze]

That`s bad luck, especially when you`re on course for a positive result! I thought I would monitor this one just in case even though I had a low probability, however when the scope ended up pointing at the Moon I spent the next ten minutes trying to find out what the problem was until I gradually realised the Moon really was in the way!